But this can ⏤ curiously ⏤ have some awkward consequences.

但說也奇怪，這會產生一些尷尬的後果。

There’s a type of under-confidence that arises, specifically, when we grow too attached to our own dignity and become anxious around any situation that might seem to threaten it.

尤其是當我們太重視自尊，且對任何有可能危及自尊的情況而感到焦慮時，就會出現自信心不足。

We hold back from challenges in which there's any risk of ending up looking ridiculous, which comprises, of course, almost all the most interesting situations.

在那些有可能會看起來很荒謬的挑戰前，我們會退縮，包括所有會引人關注的情況。

In a foreign city, we might grow reluctant to ask anyone to guide us to the nice bars because they might think us an ignorant, pitiable, lost tourist.

在國外時，我們可能不會願意去問當地人為我們指引不錯的酒吧，因為他們可能會覺得我們是無知、可憐、迷路的旅客。

We might long to kiss someone but never let on out of a fear that they could dismiss us as a predatory loser.

我們可能會渴望親吻某人，但卻從未去做，因為害怕他們把我們當成失敗的追求者打發走。

Or, at work, we don’t apply for a promotion in case the senior management deems us delusionally arrogant.

或在工作中，我們不敢爭取升遷，因為怕主管認為我們狂妄自大。

In a concerted bid never to look foolish, we don’t venture very far from our cocoon, and thereby ⏤ from time to time, at least ⏤ miss out on the best opportunities of our lives.

為了試圖看起來不愚蠢，我們並不喜歡冒險跳出舒適圈，因此日復一日後，就會錯過人生中很棒的機會。

At the heart of our under-confidence is a skewed picture of how dignified it is normal for a person to be.

對比正常人的尊嚴，我們的自信心不足是一個扭曲的形象。

We imagine that it might be possible, after a certain age, to place ourselves beyond mockery.

我們想像或許在幾年後，我們會搬到一個遠離嘲笑的地方。

We trust that it's an option to lead a good life without regularly making a complete idiot of ourselves.

我們相信這是一種選擇，過一個不會經常把自己變成一個大傻瓜的美好生活。

One of the most charming books ever written in early modern Europe is called "In Praise of Folly", by the Dutch scholar and philosopher Erasmus.

近代的早期歐洲有一本很棒的書叫做《愚人頌》，作者是荷蘭學者哲學家伊拉斯謨。

In its pages, Erasmus advances a hugely liberating argument.

在書裡，伊拉斯謨提出了一個廣義的解放論。

In a warm tone, he reminds us that everyone, however important and learned they might be, is a fool.

他以溫柔的語調提醒我們，不論是重要的人還是博學多聞的人，都是傻瓜。

No one is spared, not even the author.

沒有人能倖免，連作者也不能。

However well-schooled he himself was, Erasmus remained, he insists, as much of a nitwit as anyone else.

不論他本身受過多良好的教育，伊拉斯謨仍然堅持他跟別人一樣都是傻瓜。

His judgement is faulty, his passions get the better of him, he is prey to superstition and irrational fear, he's shy whenever he has to meet new people, he drops things at elegant dinners.

他的判斷是不完美的，他的熱情造就了他、他是迷信和非理性恐懼的獵物，每當他遇見陌生人時都會害羞、他在優雅的晚餐中掉落物品。

This is deeply cheering, for it means that our own repeated idiocies don't have to exclude us from the best company.

這是非常讓人愉快的，因為這代表我們重複性的愚蠢行為並不會讓我們被最好的公司開除。

Looking like a prick, making blunders, and doing bizarre things in the night doesn’t render us unfit for society.

看起來像蠢蛋、犯大錯、在夜裡做奇怪的事，並不會使我們與社會格格不入。

It just makes us a bit more like the greatest scholar of the northern European Renaissance.

那只會使我們看起來像北歐文藝復興時期的偉大學者。

There’s a similarly uplifting message to be pulled from the work of Pieter Brueghel; his central work, "The Dutch Proverbs", presents a comically disenchanted view of human nature.

老彼得·布勒哲爾的作品中也有類似的鼓勵訊息，他的核心作品《尼德蘭箴言》呈現了一個人性中滑稽的醒悟觀點。

Everyone, he suggests, is pretty much deranged.

他暗示說每個人都是精神錯亂的。

Here’s a man throwing his money into the river.

這裡有個男人把他的錢丟進河裡。

There’s a soldier squatting on the fire and burning his trousers.

那邊有一個士兵蹲在地上，用火燒他的褲子。

Someone is intently bashing his head against a brick wall.

有人專注地用他的頭撞磚牆。

Someone else is biting a pillar.

還有人在咬一根柱子。

Importantly, the painting is not an attack on just a few unusually awful people; it’s a picture of parts of all of us.

值得一提的是，這幅畫不只是針對少數不正常的人，而是幅描繪我們所有人的一幅畫。

Brueghel and Erasmus’ work proposes that the way to greater confidence isn’t to reassure ourselves of our own dignity.

布勒哲爾和伊拉斯謨的作品提出了擁有信心的方法，並不是對自己的尊嚴有信心。

It’s to grow at peace with the inevitable nature of our ridiculousness.

而是與我們不可避免的荒謬天性和平共處。

We are idiots now, we have been idiots in the past, and we will be idiots again in the future, and that's okay.

我們現在都是傻瓜，我們一直以來都是傻瓜，我們未來也會是傻瓜，不過都沒關係。

There aren’t any other available options for human beings to be.

身為人類，沒有其他可行的選項。

Once we learn to see ourselves as already ⏤ and by nature ⏤ foolish, it really doesn’t matter so much if we do one more thing that might make us look a bit stupid.

一旦我們自己深刻體會到天生的愚蠢，那再多做一兩件會讓自己看起來有點愚蠢的事也無傷大雅。

The person we try to kiss could indeed think us ridiculous.

我們想要親吻的人也許會覺得我們很可笑。

The individual we ask directions from in a foreign city might regard us with contempt.

在陌生國家被我們詢問路的當地人可能會鄙視我們。

But if these people did so, it wouldn’t be news to us.

但如果這些人真的這麼做，對我們來說也不算什麼新鮮事。

They'd only be confirming what we'd already gracefully accepted in our hearts long ago, that we, like them ⏤ and every other person on the earth ⏤ are a nitwit.

他們只會使我們確定自己的內心在很久以前就已經欣然接受，我們、像他們、像地球上所有人一樣，都是傻瓜。

The risk of trying and failing would have its sting substantially removed.

嘗試和失敗風險帶來的傷害將大大減少。

A fear of humiliation would no longer stalk us in the shadows of our minds.

對羞恥的恐懼將不再於腦中揮之不去。

We would grow free to give things a go by accepting that failure was the acceptable norm.

接受失敗是一種常態，讓我們能夠自由地放手一博。

And every so often, amidst the endless rebuffs we’d have factored in from the outset, it would work.

有時候，在我們最初就有考慮到的無止盡回絕中，它會起作用。

We’d get a kiss, we’d make a friend, we’d get a raise.

我們得到了一個吻、我們交到一個朋友、我們升遷了！

The road to greater confidence begins with a ritual of telling oneself solemnly every morning before heading out for the day, that one is a muttonhead, a cretin, a dumbbell, and an imbecile.

通往更多信心的道路始於每天早上的儀式，在出門前鄭重告訴自己：那是一個傻瓜、呆子、蠢蛋和笨蛋。

One or two more acts of folly should, thereafter, not matter very much at all.

從今以後，一兩次以上的愚蠢行為，根本就沒那麼重要。